What A Day - All Eyes On Georgia (Again)

Episode Date: November 10, 2022

Pollsters and pundits warned there would be a “red wave” of Republican victories on Election Day, but the results tell a different story. We share some of the big wins for Democrats that have been called so far.Democrat Raphael Warnock is once again heading into a runoff election in the Georgia Senate race. Tia Mitchell, the Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, tells us what voters in that state can expect in the weeks ahead.And in headlines: Brittney Griner was transferred to a Russian penal colony to serve out her nine-year prison sentence, Moscow said it ordered a troop withdrawal from the city of Kherson, and Meta laid off more than 11,000 of its employees.Show Notes:AP News: 2022 midterms live updates – https://tinyurl.com/2p8u52z2Tia Mitchell (Twitter) – @tiareportsCrooked Coffee is officially here. Our first blend, What A Morning, is available in medium and dark roasts. Wake up with your own bag at crooked.com/coffeeFollow us on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/whataday/For a transcript of this episode, please visit crooked.com/whataday

It's Thursday, November 10th. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. I'm Juanita Tolliver, and this is What A Day, where we're currently seeking new hobbies to get into as a way to redirect our residual midterm anxiety. Yeah, we need a little something to do with our hands, something to focus on while we wait for results. What we're looking for is a fidget spinner. Yeah, so if anyone has one of those, please send it over. We could use it. On today's show, Brittany Griner has been moved to a Russian prison camp, plus a major cryptocurrency exchange backed out of a deal to acquire one of its struggling rivals. But first, more updates from Tuesday's midterm elections. The polls and

the pundits told us to brace ourselves for a red wave. But as the results came in on election night, it was clear that that wasn't happening. And now we have even more good news to share. To paraphrase President Biden, what wave? Insert hair flip. You know, let's start with the top of the ticket here. We got some big news late Tuesday night with John Fetterman's Senate win in Pennsylvania. What else do we know, Priyanka? Yes, that was super exciting. The result came

in faster than we were even expecting. The people of Pennsylvania just couldn't wait, I guess, to send Dr. Oz and his crudite back home to New Jersey. Don't have any problems with that. However, in Wisconsin, Democrat Mandela Barnes lost to Republican Ron Johnson by less than 30,000 votes. That one was tough to watch. Tight, yeah. Very tight. But there are still three big Senate races that we are currently waiting on. So in Georgia, neither Senator Warnock nor Hershel Walker got over 50% of the vote.

So they are heading to a runoff election on December 6th. Juanita, I know you are talking a little bit more about this later on in the show. We're also keeping a really close eye on the Senate results out of Nevada in Arizona. So as of our record time at 9.30 p.m. Eastern, Democrat Mark Kelly is leading the race in Arizona. And in Nevada, Republican Adam Laxalt is slightly ahead of the Democratic incumbent, Catherine Cortez Masto. But both races are close and still have a good amount of votes outstanding. And y'all, this is going to be a slow drip. You got some counties in Arizona that are only doing one update on ballot counts per date. So we all got to hang in there together. There were also some big issues on the ballot,

ranging from abortion to election access. What do we know there, Priyanka? Yeah, so these are issues that pundits tried to say, you know, weren't motivating voters. Clearly that wasn't the case. Wrong. Definitely. Very, very wrong. We spoke a little bit about the abortion wins on yesterday's show, but voters in four states, Vermont, California, Michigan, and Kentucky, all voted to affirm abortion rights. Vermont, California, and Michigan enshrined the right to an abortion in their respective

state constitutions, while Kentucky voters rejected an amendment that would have denied constitutional protections to abortion. Look, I'm really feeling the I told you so energy. I've seen staffers from the White House posting about, you know, when people were asking if the VP was focusing on abortion too much, they're like, no, we knew exactly what we're doing. Yeah. And also, I appreciate that in Kentucky, Republicans got in on that support for abortion rights. Yeah. You don't get that result in Kentucky without people who voted one way on the top of the ticket voting another on this amendment. Right. There were also some really big voting rights wins in Michigan. Voters expanded vote by mail and early voting. Michigan Democrats actually had a huge night that we should take a second to talk about because it

was really exciting. So there, Democrats held on to the governor's seat with Gretchen Whitmer, the attorney general's office, the secretary of state, and they managed to flip the state house and the Senate. So on top of, you know, their abortion rights access, their voting rights access, really great day to be in Michigan. We also saw wins for workers. Voters in both Nebraska and D.C. approved higher minimum wages. South Dakota expanded Medicaid access. In Illinois, voters amended the Constitution to guarantee workers' rights to unionize and collectively bargain. And separately, marijuana legalization passed in Missouri and in Maryland. There was also this bizarre ban on slavery out of Tennessee that passed as well, which, I mean, I guess it's a

win, but over 300,000 people voted against it. So that's really not great and reassuring at all whatsoever. Look, I love the trifecta. I love raising the minimum wage, legalization, Medicaid expansion, and people are clearly voting for what they want. But here's the thing, Priyanka, as a girl who spent most of my childhood in Memphis, Tennessee, I'm not surprised that 300,000 people voted to keep slavery as an option. And my sister was just so fed up last night. She texted me like, Tennessee is just a ridiculous place to live at this point. I hate existing here. It's exhausting. And so I empathize with my family who's still in the volunteer state. But let's be real. I'm glad that the slavery ban panned out the way that it did.

On a lighter note, you mentioned voting rights and democracy. Let's talk about all of the election denier candidates on the ballot. How did they end up doing? Yeah, so it was a little bit of a mixed bag. According to The New York Times, over 370 Republican candidates nationwide have denied or questioned the results of the 2020 election. And of those candidates, at least 169 have won their races. So this is definitely not something that is going away with the results of this election. But in governor's races across the country, most of the Republican candidates who wouldn't say whether or not they would have

certified Biden's win in 2020 lost their elections. That includes Doug Mastriano in Pennsylvania, Tudor Dixon in Michigan, Lee Zeldin in New York, and more. We are, of course, still waiting on the Carrie Lake and Katie Hobbs race in Arizona. As of now, they are still very close. So naturally, the Republican candidate Carrie Lake is casting doubts on the results already. Of course. Great, got ahead of it. I will also just add like a fun little petty note for us. Donald Trump was reportedly fuming Wednesday morning after at least 14 of the candidates

that he chose to back were projected to lose. He was pissed off at everyone around him, including his wife, I believe, because she liked Dr. Oz. So yeah, things are going great for him down there. I just love the image of orange face guy like throwing a temper tantrum, which is all his fault. Let's be real. He picked most of these candidates that dragged down the entire Republican ticket in some states. And so I think you're right, though. We cannot expect these election deniers to go away because there will be some crazy behavior to come in Congress since they'll be seated there. But I do think the one race I still got my eye on is Colorado three where Boebert at the time of our recording is down 62 votes, y'all. It's tight, but I'm holding

out hope. Priyanka, let's talk more about what's going on in the house. What else do we know so far? Yeah, on that Boebert race note, like every single vote counts. Every vote counts, y'all. We are down to the wire here, and that might be the difference between keeping this woman in Congress and sending her crazy ass home. Anyway, speaking of the House, there are still a number of House races that haven't been called yet. 34, as of, you know, when we went to record, have not been called. But Democrats have had some really exciting wins so far. And starting with progressive house candidates, there is talk of new members joining the squad of progressive lawmakers that started back in 2018 with AOC, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Presley, and Rashida Tlaib. This year's class of progressives includes Friend of the Wad, Maxwell

Frost of Florida, Delia Ramirez of Illinois, Summer Lee of Pennsylvania, and Greg Kassar of Texas. They are some really exciting candidates who are now headed to D.C., which is great. So far, Republicans have gained 12 net seats, which is, you know, very different than the picture that was being painted earlier. But many observers are looking at New York as somewhere that might cost Democrats control of the House. You know, control of the House has not been decided yet. Same as the Senate. They are still up for grabs. But in New York, Republicans have picked up four new seats, including one that was previously held by DCCC chair Sean Maloney. But some context around those wins, because you might be hearing a lot more about that in the coming days, they have a bit to do with New York's congressional

map, which was struck down by the courts and then redrawn. Meanwhile, though, aggressive Republican gerrymanders in states like Florida and Ohio were pushed through, were not redrawn in the same ways. So just something to keep in mind as you hear analysis about these elections moving forward. And when I think about those congressional maps, I'm starting to see signs point to one infamous New York figure, Andrew Cuomo, who appointed the judges who struck down those redrawn maps. And I feel like New York Dems are coming for him at a whole new level now, but that it is what it is. And I agree with what President Biden said earlier today about every seat loss being painful. But let's be real. This outcome is pretty

amazing for Democrats. It exceeds expectations. And it's the best that a first term Dem president has performed in a midterms in decades. So look, this is key, I think is also a clear example of what happens when young voters turn out at crazy rates. So shout out to the young voters, totally getting Democrats across the finish line. Definitely. And Priyanka, you mentioned the Georgia Senate runoff earlier. And right after that runoff was set, I got to check in with Tia Mitchell, the Washington correspondent for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, and I got all of the tea about what's happening on the ground in Georgia. Tia not only broke down the Senate race, but she also shared some insights about key factors in the rematch between Stacey Abrams and Brian Kemp.

I started by asking Tia what voters should expect as we gear up for the December 6th runoff between Senator Warnock and Herschel Walker. So for the next four weeks, voters in Georgia can expect to continue to be inundated with ads in their mailboxes, on their TVs, on the internet. There have been a lot of jokes about Thanksgiving being full of campaigning and politics. And then for those grassroots workers and staffers, they've got to now we're into the holiday season. That being said, I think that, you know, what we're hearing now, particularly from those grassroots organizations that are aligned with Democrats and progressive groups, they say they're ready. They're hitting the ground running because Georgia's runoff rules were changed. That's one of the results of Republicans pushing

through changes to the state's election laws after the Democrats had so many wins in 2020 and the 2021 runoffs. And one of the changes was making the runoff period shorter. And that could make it harder for Democrats because the runoffs were something that Republicans historically have been better at than Democrats. In Georgia, it's just been harder to get Democrats to come back out again to vote again. So in 2021, Ossoff and Warnock really took advantage of their grassroots network and spent the nine weeks turning out their vote while Donald Trump spent nine weeks telling Republicans why they shouldn't vote. Exactly. He was too busy discrediting electoral counts. And I appreciate you naming 2021 because this is familiar territory. And are you expecting Democrats and organizers to throw every bit of their arsenal at this just like they did in 2021? Yes, we do, especially because, you know, for Warnock, there's a historic nature to his election. And again, Democrats, Black voters are really invested in seeing him get another six year term. But the difference is they only have four weeks. It's not a lot of time.

Now, I think some of it is going to also depend on like, does either party need to win Georgia in order to get the majority? Right. If that's the case, then you would think Hershel Walker has the advantage again, because Republicans are considered to have a runoff advantage in general. I think that that also reminds me of how hard Republican voters were rioting for Herschel Walker after all of the abuse allegations, after all the abortion allegations. They were still down for him because they thought he could be the key to the majority in the Senate.

But whatever happens in Nevada and Arizona could take that off the table entirely. That could be something for Democrats to leverage. And I want to also know about the other big race in Georgia. So you have a Georgia Republican in Brian Kemp who told the line when it came to Trump, when it came to election denying, when it came to voter suppression, he came out gravy, right? AP called that race for him over Stacey Abrams. And I want to know what was so appealing about Brian Kemp for Georgia voters, because compared to Herschel Walker, he outdid himself. Yeah. So number one, he's an incumbent. You know, it's hard to unseat an incumbent.

Right. Also, Brian Kemp was able to, like, walk this fine line where he stood up to Trump when Trump wanted to overturn an election. And that gave him, like, the like more moderate, more independent minded than he actually is. At the same time, he pushed through very conservative policies that helped to keep the base with him. So even though he wasn't considered a Trump MAGA Republican, he's still very far right. You know, he signed restrictive abortion laws. He expanded open carry so that people can carry guns in Georgia without having to apply for a permit. And he signed those voter suppression bills very quickly. Yeah. So in a lot of ways, he was able to appeal to moderates in a way that made him really tough to beat. Right. Talk about tough to beat.

Stacey Abrams ran an extremely strong race that had immense support, but she still fell short this cycle. And I have a lot of respect for her, not only as a candidate, but as a Black woman who invested years in developing incredible infrastructure to mobilize voters in Georgia. But that infrastructure seems to work

for every other Democratic candidate except for Stacey Abrams. It worked for Biden, it worked for Walker, it worked for Ossoff. And so break it down for us. Why didn't this work out for Stacey Abrams? Number one, there are voters in Georgia who are not gonna vote for Stacey Abrams no matter what.

I need to emphasize that point because I saw the exit poll numbers that said 74% of white men didn't support her. 72% of white women didn't support her. 44% of Latinos didn't support her. That's it right there. And I remember hearing this in 2018. There are people who think Stacey Abrams is the absolute worst. We know that there are some voters who have a problem with women in leadership, particularly assertive women in leadership. She's a black woman. She happens to be a black woman who isn't skinny and wears her hair natural and is not married, never been married,

has no children. Right. And so her decision to not allow anyone to put her in a box and to dare be ambitious and to say what she wants and not be demure about that really ticks people off. That's even before you get to her politics. Georgia is a very split state. So it's very partisan. Your margins are a small pocket of persuadable voters in the middle. I've also even heard Democrats say that the fact that Stacey Abrams between the 2018 race and the 2022 race, those four years, really built a national profile, which we know she did. And so some people felt that was a little bit harder for her to pivot back to be considered a statewide candidate. I feel like that's just people being like, you're thriving too much for us. You know, most voters of color didn't feel that way about her. She was able to draw crowds and deliver a speech that fired people up.

So Democrats were with her. She just wasn't able to get enough people who either consider themselves moderates and definitely not conservatives where she could really go toe to toe with Brian Kemp. And since y'all know I'm all about reflection and manifesting dreams, I asked Tia what could be next for Stacey Abrams. And as a Black woman, I wanted to make space to support Stacey Abrams in doing whatever her heart desires next,

whether that's writing more novels, anything. And Tia agreed that there are deals and partnerships to be made in addition to Abrams continuing her longstanding voter engagement and organizing work. So thrive on, Ms. Abrams. You deserve everything. And we will continue to closely follow all of the midterm election news.

But that's the latest for now. We'll be back with some headlines. Headlines. Brittany Greiner's lawyers said yesterday that the WNBA star was moved to a Russian penal colony to serve out her nine-year prison sentence for drug smuggling. Greiner was arrested back in February at a Moscow airport after authorities found vape cartridges containing cannabis oil in her luggage. According to reports, she was transferred on Friday. Greiner's lawyers say that they don't know her exact whereabouts, but they expect to know more when she arrives at her final destination,

which could take several days or even weeks. President Biden said yesterday that he's hopeful that Russia will be more open to negotiating Grinow's release now that the midterm elections are over. We are just hoping that she gets home safely as soon as possible. It has been far too long that she's been gone. Speaking of Russia, Moscow said yesterday it has ordered a troop withdrawal from the captured Ukrainian city of Kherson. But Ukraine's military says there are no signs of that actually happening.

Ukrainian officials have said in recent days that Russia might pretend to withdraw from Kherson as a way to lure Ukrainian troops into battle. But if Russia did actually retreat, it would be a huge setback for Moscow, which captured Kherson in the early days of the war. SpaceX parent company Meta laid off more than 11,000 employees yesterday. That is about 13% of the company's entire workforce. Sources told the New York Times that several departments were impacted, but in what seems like a reflection of Mark Zuckerberg's wish to depart from our physical world and disappear into virtual reality, job cuts weren't as deep on the team that is dedicated to building out the metaverse,

whatever that is. Zuckerberg announced the layoffs in a letter to employees explaining that he had overestimated how much meta would grow following its boom during the pandemic and that these job cuts would make meta a, quote, leaner and more efficient company moving forward. And speaking of industries that are going through changes, this has been one of the more tumultuous weeks on record for the world of cryptocurrency, with the collapse of a leading crypto exchange prompting many to question the stability of fake computer money, pretty much. The exchange is called FTX, and it was considered one of the more trustworthy firms in crypto with lots of institutional investors, a valuation of $32 billion as of January and its name on an NBA

stadium in Miami. But last Wednesday, a report from the website Coindesk pointed out shady accounting underlying FTX's operations, which was significant enough to inspire investors to pull more than $6 billion from the exchange over the next three days. That sent FTX scrambling to cover its debts. Its CEO soon announced he'd sell the firm to its largest competitor, Binance. But after doing due diligence, Binance said yesterday that it would walk away from the deal, citing, quote, issues beyond our control or ability to help. People with their money stuck in FTX cannot withdraw it

and will likely end up holding nothing more than the vague sense of superiority that comes with investing in crypto. Ta-da! Bitcoin also took a huge hit yesterday, falling by as much as 15%. Old, crumpled up dollar bills never look so good. I feel great about being a little normie person who has never participated in any of this and doesn't understand what half of these words mean. Never got into it. Never got into it and that feels like a good thing.

Good enough for me. And European food protests have escalated with targets progressing from antique art to antique guys. Someone threw eggs at the UK's King Charles yesterday

while he was visiting the city of York with his wife, Camilla. Before making his royal omelette, the protester reportedly shouted, this country was built on the blood of slaves. He was arrested soon after. Some pundits noted that Charles reacted with surprising calm, not even flinching during the volley of the eggs,

which to me just means that he knew on a deep subconscious level that he deserved to get hit or, just hear me out on this one, that this is some uh great promo for the crown that is i believe out yesterday so who knows let's be real that's the last thing the royal family wants people to watch based on all of the pr hits they've been doing also no lies detected from this protester and i think it's always a wonderful day to call out colonizers and their direct descendants and beneficiaries. So carry on.

Throw more eggs. Yeah, listen, I love an omelet. No notes. And those are the headlines. That is all for today. If you like the show, make sure you subscribe, leave a review, become unfazed by flying eggs, and tell your friends to listen. And if you're into reading and not just posts on Reddit saying crypto will come back stronger than ever like me, what a day is also a nightly newsletter.

Check it out and subscribe on crooked.com slash subscribe. I'm Juanita Tolliver. I'm Priyanka Arabindi. And we'll see you in the metaverse. How about never? No, we will not. I promise the metaverse is going to be a non-thing within the next quarter. The metaverse is already a non-thing.

No, no. What a Day is a production of Crooked Media. It's recorded and mixed by Bill Lance. Jazzy Marine and Raven Yamamoto are our associate producers. Our head writer is John Milstein, and our executive producer is Lita Martinez. Our theme music is by Colin Gilliard and Kashaka.